French authorities have reported over 140 cyberattacks during the Paris Olympics, but confirmed that none of these incidents disrupted the Games. The attacks, which occurred between July 26 and August 11, primarily targeted government entities, sports organizations, transport systems, and telecommunications infrastructure, according to France’s national cybersecurity agency, Anssi.
The agency recorded 119 reports of low-impact security events and 22 incidents where “a malicious actor” successfully compromised a victim’s information system. Despite the high number of attacks, Anssi stated that all cyber events during this period were generally characterized by their low impact.
The majority of these incidents involved denial-of-service attacks aimed at overwhelming servers, resulting in downtime. Additionally, some incidents involved attempts or actual compromises of data, among other issues. Notably, the Grand Palais and about 40 other museums in France experienced a ransomware attack in early August, but this attack did not affect the Olympic information systems.
Anssi’s report indicates that the situation was closely monitored and managed effectively, preventing significant disruptions to the Games. This follows a pattern of increasing cyber threats observed at major international events, with previous Olympics also experiencing high volumes of cyber activity. During the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, there were 450 million cyber operations reported, double the number seen during the 2012 London Olympics.
Marie-Rose Bruno, director of technology and information systems for the Paris Games, had anticipated “eight to 10 times more” cyberattacks compared to Tokyo, reflecting the growing sophistication and volume of cyber threats targeting large-scale international events.
